Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame

I am a Marquette man myself, but I have always liked Notre Dame, especially its football team. My dad attended Notre Dame, my brother graduated from there, my uncle is a graduate, and my grandfather played baseball back when Knute Rockne was there.

So I have some Notre Dame blood in me. I was even accepted to go to Notre Dame Law School, but decided that lawyering was not in my blood.

If I were a student at Notre Dame, I would want to hear from the president of the United States, no matter who the president is.

Presidents have been coming to Notre Dame since Franklin Roosevelt. It is just one of those things they do.

Only one president who came to Notre Dame is Catholic. So most presidents have had serious disagreements with the Catholic Church on some issues, whether it be abortion, war, the death penalty or transubstantiation, when they visited the Golden Dome.

When I was in college, I would get really annoyed when people would protest against Ronald Reagan. Reagan never came to Marquette, but he did go visit Notre Dame, and he was warmly welcomed there, because he played George Gipp in that great movie, “Knute Rockne, All American.” There were always all kinds of protests against him on other college campuses, and I thought the protesters looked like a bunch of idiots.

I felt the same way about the protesters against George W. Bush. He is the president of the United States, and while you can disagree with the person holding the office, you ought to respect the office.

Randall Terry, who has decided to organize the protest against Obama at Notre Dame, only recently converted to Catholicism, and apparently didn’t read the rules manual before becoming a Catholic. As a divorcee who remarried, in the eyes of the church he is a big-time sinner. Of course, that hasn’t stopped him from getting on his moral high horse and protesting the president.

I am a pro-life Republican who worked hard to defeat Barack Obama when he was running to be president. I find his political positions on abortion to be very troubling, and I will work hard to try to beat him when he runs for president again.

But I respect the fact that the American people elected him president of the United States, and I respect the office that he currently holds.

I also believe that Notre Dame would have been rightfully condemned if they didn’t invite him to give the Commencement Address. And if I were a student there, I would be pissed off if some dude like Randall Terry came to my school to try to score political points off my graduation ceremony.

I am proud of Notre Dame for inviting the president and I am proud of the president for coming. Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame!